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Eddie Ryland is Samantha Parkington's bothersome neighbor.

Personality and Facts[]

Eddie is a boy about Samantha's age that enjoys picking on and teasing her. He is described as round faced with curly hair; illustrations give him red hair and dark, likely brown, eyes. He lives with his mother (Mrs. Ryland) and father and appears to be an only child. The Rylands' wealth is unstated, but the family has enough status that his family lives next door to Samantha and can hire Nellie O'Malley as a maid. Furthermore Mrs. Ryland is of enough status enough to be able to call on Mary Edwards as an equal to discuss the neighborhood's perceived issues with the O'Malley family and Samantha's familiarity with Nellie after their return. However, Eddie attends the nearby public school.

Eddie is a bully and a pest who plays mean-spirited tricks towards Samantha and other children, such as stealing another girl's hair ribbon. He has poor manners like playing with chewing gum in his mouth. He is poor at math; in Meet Samantha, he tells Samantha that she is so dumb she probably thinks three times four is twelve (which is the correct answer). Despite his bullying and meanness, Samantha knows how to handle him using threats, such as breaking his pocketknife or stealing his beetle collection to deposit in the church plate; however, at least once his trick was uncaught, and he successfully ruined the ice cream at Samantha's birthday party.

In The Books[]

Meet Samantha: An American Girl[]

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Eddie bothering Samantha after she's fallen out of the tree.

Eddie is the first voice heard in the series; he yells at Samantha and causes her to tumble out of the tree. He then mocks and teases her, and only leaves when Samantha threatens to dump his beetle collection into the church collection plate. He is seen again when Gardner Edwards comes out to take Samantha for a ride in the automobile, as he was sitting in the car but scrambles out. He tells Samantha she looks dumb and she ignores him. He then yells that a girl her age is coming to be his maid, and Samantha calls him a liar. She does not believe him until she meets the girl, Nellie O'Malley.

At around the same time as the two girls first meet, Eddie interrupts them and says he sees them, calling them ugly. He then threatens to tell on them--most likely to his parents--as Nellie is not working. Samantha stops him by saying she'll take his pocketknife and cram it full of taffy. Eddie stops in his tracks, stares, covers his back pocket where the knife is, backs away, and runs off.

A little bit later, after going to see what happened to Jessie after her leaving, Samantha goes next door to find Nellie. Nellie is nowhere to be seen, and Eddie is there playing with gum by taking it out of his mouth in long strings and stuffing it back. He says he knows something Samantha doesn't, looking pleased with himself. Samantha waits and Eddie says that Nellie is going away because she's sick and his mother doesn't think she's strong enough to work properly; next time they'll get an immigrant woman who will last.

Samantha shoves Eddie's gum into his hair and runs off, leaving him howling and trying to get the gum out of his hair.

Samantha Learns a Lesson: A School Story[]

Eddie is only mentioned when Samantha has come to pick up the O'Malley sisters from the Mount Bedford Public School; he is seen pulling the hair bow out of Carrie Wilson's hair and running off with it.

His mother Mrs. Ryland is later seen visiting to Grandmary with Edith Eddleton's mother, Mrs. Eddleton. Both women are fussing about how improper it is for the Van Sicklens to hire Nellie's entire family and how it's bad manners for Samantha to be seen with Nellie.

Happy Birthday, Samantha!: A Springtime Story[]

Samantha's Special Talent[]

The Lilac Tunnel: My Journey with Samantha[]

Samantha: The Gift and Samantha: Lost and Found[]

All scenes with Eddie are removed; he is never mentioned in the volumes' text.

Samantha Helps a Friend[]

Eddie's role from Meet Samantha of informing her that Nellie is being hired does not change, nor his mentions from Samantha Learns a Lesson.

Samantha: An American Girl Holiday[]

Eddie is much more of a bully than a pest in the movie. He also appears to be a little older than Samantha (but not by much, as he continues to wear short pants).[2] Eddie bullies people, including the milkman, into giving him money, and has a money jar to store all the money that he obtained from bullying people and pressuring them into giving him coins.

When the O'Malleys move in to be servants to his family, he breaks a window behind Nellie as they arrive and demands a penny for not telling. Samantha stands up to him for Nellie's sake. He later tries to get money out of Samantha to not tell that she and Nellie are playing together in the boathouse, and gets Nellie in trouble for having spent the night in there. Later, Nellie follows Eddie to find where he hides his money jar in the well and takes it. Samantha then dumps the contents in the collection plate at church. Eddie glares at her but cannot do anything about it as they are in church.

He is not seen again after Samantha moves to New York City.

He is played by Michael Kanev.

References[]

  1. Samantha's Special Talent, pg 26: The librarian cleared his throat. "As I announce the winners, please come onstage. Third prize...Edward Ryland."
  2. The actor that played Eddie was about thirteen to fourteen years old when he performed the role.
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